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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

We thought we'd have a new van by this evening. We're content to wait. God knows what He is doing. I'm thankful I have the beast to drive while we wait for Him to reveal a more appropriate set of wheels. ::grin:: Nolan had an appointment today. The doc used to be in the military. He called our insurance and gave them an earful. They called and told us they would authorize his meds/treatment as it was a "continuation of treatment." Um...many have already told them this on both sides of the ocean...but sometimes repetition is good. In any event we thought this was Nolan's last appointment and last month of meds, but doctor wants to go another month. We are thankful Tricare finally authorized the conclusion of Nolan's treatment. Nolan and I toured a local gym. This is 8 minutes from our home instead of the 25 minutes to base. We are in the process of running the numbers. Would it be cheaper, over two years, for three of us to have memberships at the gym or to buy exercise equipment? I simply don't have two hours to dedicate outside of the home for daily workouts....and the gas prices are killing us in the beast. LOL It hit me today....I'm a stay-at-home-homeschooling mom who is FINALLY staying at home! We like that. We school at our leisure. I am not subconsciously rushing to "get er done." It's a nice pace. Still a lot to do each day; but we are all benefiting from being home more and not rushing to be done to play outside or attend the next meeting or activity. The kids are sharing their hearts much more frequently and fully. We are caring for each other better. It's good. Reeves farm contacted me to discuss yesterday's mix up. They're bringing a box of veggies by tomorrow. We even had time to do two experiments today....one to demonstrate air pressure and lift......

Blowing over the top of the straw

As you blow over the top of the straw, water is drawn up the straw and squirts out the top.

Documenting the action isn't our favorite part

The second experiment was to make two gliders - one with short fat wings and one with longer rectangle wings - and see which would fly furthest and why.

Zander was thrilled to search through Dad's "killer tool box" for a tape measure.

Part of any experiment is the hypothesis. I asked Stacia, "Which glider do you think will fly the farthest?

"The one with the long wings."

"Why?" I expected to hear about drag, aerodynamics.....

"It looks like the wings on the airplanes and THEY flew all the way from Japan."

Who can argue with THAT logic? ::snort::

They were told they could color and decorate their planes; our kids preferred to use the Kashi logos.

We flew each plane 10 times - 40 flights in all. We averaged the distance. Zander's "worked." Stacia's - not so much. From her we learned it is nearly impossible to eliminate all but one variable.

The booklets we made today

By the way - we have 500 straws (needed eight) and five lbs of clay (needed four little balls). If anyone has some great craft ideas send them my way. Zander says he can come up with ideas. I cringe.

This is a real man. Several 12+ hour days in a row...a very sore shoulder....still he came home and set about rebuilding broken furniture.